New U.S. system to review software patents
,----[ Quote ]
| "High-quality patents increase certainty around intellectual property
| rights, reducing contention and freeing resources to focus on
| innovation," said David Kappos, vice president of IP law at IBM.
|
| Red Hat chief patent counsel Adam Avrunin said finding references
| that show the subject matter of a patent application is already
| known, especially in the software field, is often troublesome for
| examiners at the Patent Office who have a duty to grant patents
| only to inventive technologies.
`----
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2006-11/01/content_5276621.htm
IMO, only in America can algorithms become patentable.
Appeal court ruling sets marker on UK software patents
,----[ Quote ]
| The three judges of the UK Court of Appeal have ruled decisively
| that patents on pure computer programs may not be granted in the
| UK. The ruling came in the case of Macrossan vs the UK Patent
| Office (UKPO).
`----
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/10/27/software_patents/
What's wrong with software patents?
,----[ Quote ]
| In this article I've examined software patents from the fundamentalist
| view point of how well a property system functions. This is not art,
| but science. We can document and measure, and we can prove or
| disprove property systems.
`----
http://www.freesoftwaremagazine.com/blogs/whats_wrong_with_software_patents
It's easy to change when companies control the government, e.g.:
Leaked letter warns of open source 'threat to eco-system'
,----[ Quote ]
| leaked letter to the European Commission has revealed the extent of
| lobbying by proprietary software groups to prevent the widespread
| adoption of open-source software.
|
| Sent in response to a recent report on the role of open-source
| software in the European economy, Microsoft-funded pressure
| group, the Initiative for Software Choice (ISC) warned of
| potentially dire effects if too much encouragement was given
| to open source software development.
`----
http://www.techworld.com/news/index.cfm?RSS&NewsID=7109
EU official joins consultancy serving Microsoft
,----[ Quote ]
| A European Commission official originally chosen to lead its antitrust
| case against Microsoft left on Friday last week to work for a
| consultancy that has the software firm as a client, a spokesman said.
`----
http://today.reuters.com/news/articleinvesting.aspx?view=CN&storyID=2006-10-03T134311Z_01_L03693228_RTRIDST_0_TECH-MICROSOFT-OFFICIAL.XML&rpc=66&type=qcna
http://tinyurl.com/h47g3
US ambassador to the EU was former Microsoft lobbyist
,----[ Quote ]
| Before C. Boyden Gray was named as George Bush's number one person in
| Europe, he was a lawyer lobbying on behalf of Microsoft.
`----
http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=34706
US politicians go to bat for Microsoft
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/09/26/microsoft_eu_political_lobbying/
Report Says Nonprofits Sold Influence to Abramoff
,----[ Quote ]
| E-mails released by the committee show that Abramoff, often
| with the knowledge of the groups' leaders, exploited the tax-exempt
| status and leveraged the stature of the organizations to build
| support among conservatives for legislation or government action
| sought by clients including Microsoft Corp., mutual fund company
| DH2 Inc., Primedia Inc.'s Channel One Network, and Brown-Forman,
| maker of Jack Daniel's whiskey.
`----
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/12/AR2006101200889.html
http://tinyurl.com/y2rbpu
Open Source Foes In Bed With Abramoff
,----[ Quote ]
| "Citizens Against Government Waste has said some highly critical things
| about open source software in the past. They've also pounced on supporters
| of the OpenDocument Format along the way. Alas, it seems their close ties
| to Jack Abramoff have drawn the (unfavorable) attention of Senate staff."
`----
http://politics.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/10/12/2036223&from=rss
Microsoft plays Massachusetts Senate card
http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=32515
Changing the Report, After the Vote
,----[ Quote ]
| That agreement was nearly imperiled last weekend, though. Gerri
| Elliott, corporate vice president at Microsoft's Worldwide Public
| Sector division, sent an e-mail message to fellow commissioners Friday
| evening saying that she "vigorously" objected to a paragraph in which
| the panel embraced and encouraged the development of open source
| software and open content projects in higher education.
`----
http://insidehighered.com/news/2006/09/01/commission
Feds seek formal extension of Microsoft antitrust deal
,----[ Quote ]
| The U.S. Department of Justice and Microsoft on Wednesday filed a
| formal application for a two-year extension of portions of their
| landmark antitrust settlement, with the possibility of stretching it
| until 2012.
`----
http://news.zdnet.com/2100-3513_22-6111240.html
|
|
